making sense of (big) bata with visual analytics
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Making Sense of (Big) Data
with Visual AnalyticsDr Kai Xu
Associate Professor in Data AnalyticsMiddlesex University, London, UK
[email protected] https://kaixu.me http://vis4sense.github.io/
Outline• What is Visual Analytics• Example - TimeSet & VAST Challenge 2014• What is Sensemaking• Example - SenseMap
Data Visualisation – Human Cognition for Pattern Discovery
Visual Analytics = Visualisation + (Data) Analytics
Visualisation
Data Analysis Interaction
Information RetrievalMachine Learning
Data Mining
Information VisualisationScientific Visualisation
Computer Graphics
Human-Computer InteractionCognitive Psychology
Perception
My Previous Work – Visual Analytics
Example - VAST Challenge 2014• IEEE Visual Analytics Science & Technology (VAST) Challenge• Provide dataset and analysis tasks• Entry: visual analytics systems• Leading research groups and companies
• VAST Challenge 2014 – Mini Challenge 3• Data: tweets• Task: detect and solve a crime
The Data
What is Sensemaking?• Making sense of data• Collecting, understanding, analysing, reasoning, and making decisions
• It is something we do everyday:• Plan a holiday, buy a house, understand an illness, …• Defence, policing, investment, medical diagnosis, …
• The task is usually not well defined • Can’t run a google search or SQL query to find the answer
• Involve many different data• Explorative and iterative
Sensemaking
Data Analysis & Visualisation
Reasoning Decision
Making Sense of (Big) Data
Example: what is the best camera for about £500?
What is the best camera for £500?
Pixel number
Sensor size
Image qualitychromatic aberration?!
Noise reduction
What does experts say?
Online reviews
What does my friend say? Smart phone
Compact
Full frame?
Micro 4/3?Sony RX100
Nikon D750Samsung Galaxy S7
What are the price?
How do I compare? Panasonic
LX100
Form factorModels
Camera LensAperture
This is usually what it looks like after one hour
• What is relevant and what is not?• Where are information about image quality?• How to compare the models?• Where did I left off two days ago?• How do I explain to my wife?
A ‘Map’ of Sensemaking• Sensemaking is kind of like exploring a maze …• What you need is something like this …
SenseMap – A ‘Map’ for Online Sensemaking
Browser enhancement
History Map
Knowledge Map
SenseMap• SenseMap to support browser-
based online sensemaking• Capture and visualise the
analytic provenance• Support information collection
and curation• Early stage of the sensemaking
process
Takeaway Messages• Sensemaking is how people understand, reason, and make decisions
with data• It is important to Big Data, but there is limited support available• Visual Analytics combines data visualisation with analytics• A promising approach for sensemaking support
Questions?I am looking for collaboration
Dr Kai Xu (Associate Professor in Data Analytics)Middlesex University, London, UK
[email protected] https://kaixu.me http://vis4sense.github.io/